"T is but the cloudy darkness dense,
That wrapt the Mount around;
While in amaze the people stays,
To hear the Coming Sound.

Some chosen prophet-soul the while

Shall dare, sublimely meek,
Within the shroud of blackest cloud
The Deity to seek :
Mid atheistic systems dark,

And darker hearts' despair,

That soul has heard perchance his word, And on the dusky air,

His skirts, as passed He by, to see

Hath strained on their behalf, Who on the plain, with dance amain, Adore the Golden Calf.

"T is but the cloudy darkness dense;
Though blank the tale it tells,
No God, no Truth! yet He, in sooth,
Is there, within it dwells;
Within the sceptic darkness deep

He dwells that none may see,
Till idol forms and idol thoughts
Have passed and ceased to be:
No God, no Truth! ah though, in sooth,
So stand the doctrine's half;
On Egypt's track return not back,
Nor own the Golden Calf.

Take better part, with manlier heart, Thine adult spirit can:

No God, no Truth, receive it ne'erBelieve it ne'er-O Man!

But turn not then to seek again

What first the ill began;

No God, it saith; ah, wait in faith
God's self-completing plan;
Receive it not, but leave it not,
And wait it out, O man!

The Man that went the cloud within

Is gone and vanished quite; "He cometh not," the people cries, "Nor bringeth God to sight": "Lo these thy gods, that safety give, Adore and keep the feast!" Deluding and defuded cries

The Prophet's brother-Priest:
And Israel all bows down to fall
Before the gilded beast.

Devout, indeed! that priestly creed,
O Man, reject as sin!
The clouded hill attend thou still,
And him that went within.

243

He yet shall bring some worthy thing
For waiting souls to see;
Some sacred word that he hath heard
Their light and life shall be;
Some lofty part, than which the heart
Adopt no nobler can,

Thou shalt receive, thou shalt believe,
And thou shalt do, O Man!

FROM THE "BOTHIE OF TOBER-NAVUOLICH."

WHERE does Circumstance end, and Providence, where begins it?

What are we to resist, and what are we to be friends with?

If there is battle 't is battle by night; I stand in the darkness,

Here in the midst of men, Ionian and Dorian on both sides,

Signal and password known; which is friend, which is foeman?

Is it a friend? I doubt, though he speak with the voice of a brother.

O that the armies indeed were arrayed!
O joy of the onset!

Sound, thou trumpet of God, come forth
Great Cause, and array us!
King and leader appear, thy soldiers an-
swering seek thee.

Would that the armies indeed were
arrayed. O where is the battle!
Neither battle I see, nor arraying, nor
King in Israel,

Only infinite jumble and mess and dislocation,

Backed by a solemn appeal, "For God's sake do not stir there!"

THE STREAM OF LIFE.

O STREAM descending to the sea,
Thy mossy banks between,
The flow'rets blow, the grasses grow,
The leafy trees are green.

In garden plots the children play,
The fields the laborers till,
The houses stand on either hand,
And thou descendest still.

O life descending into death, Our waking eyes behold,

Parent and friend thy lapse attend, Companions young and old.

Strong purposes our minds possess, Our hearts affections fill,

We toil and earn, we seek and learn, And thou descendest still.

O end to which our currents tend,
Inevitable sea,

To which we flow, what do we know,
What shall we guess of thee?

A roar we hear upon thy shore, As we our course fultil;

Searce we divine a sun will shine And be above us still.

QUA CURSUM VENTUS.

As ships becalmed at eve, that lay
With canvas drooping, side by side,
Two towers of sail at dawn of day

Are scarce, long leagues apart, descried;

When fell the night, upsprung the breeze,
And all the darkling hours they plied,
Nor dreamt but each the selfsame seas
By each was cleaving, side by side:

E'en so, but why the tale reveal
Of those whom, year by year unchanged,
Brief absence joined anew to feel,

Astounded, soul from soul estranged?

At dead of night their sails were filled, And onward each rejoicing steered : Ah, neither blame, for neither willed,

Or wist, what first with dawn appeared!

To veer, how vain! On, onward strain, Brave barks! In light, in darkness too, Through winds and tides one compass guides,

To that, and your own selves, be true.

But O blithe breeze, and O great seas,
Though ne'er, that earliest parting past,
On your wide plain they join again,
Together lead them home at last!

One port, methought, alike they sought,
One purpose hold where'er they fare,
O bounding breeze, O rushing seas,
At last, at last, unite them there